I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1244 Smoke of War
Prince Heinrich said helplessly, "Your Majesty, the Allied General Staff believes that if we disperse our forces to defend our southern borders, we cannot guarantee absolute superiority over France, so we have no choice but to..."

The young King of Prussia suddenly blushed, waved his arms, and roared, "Military force?! The Blücher Legion is besieged in Glarus because they are helping the Austrians reclaim Italy!"
"The British promised me they would rescue them, but they only sent 20,000 men to appease me!"

He sneered, "Ha, Picton was wiped out the moment he left Basel. Now they're plotting against my Brandenburg Guard!"

Prince Heinrich remained silent for a while, and only after the king had calmed down a bit did he whisper, "Your Majesty, the French army could indeed threaten Potsdam."

William III was stunned, like a puppet whose wind-up had been completed. After a moment, he nodded and said, "Yes, please order Marshal Mehrendoff to assemble the army."

Then he puffed out his chest and said, "Tell him I'll go to Weimar with him."

Prince Heinrich exclaimed in surprise, "Your Majesty, you don't need to do this..."

William III, however, gripped the sword on the table with unwavering resolve: "I want to fight alongside my soldiers, just like my grandfather. The King of Prussia should never remain confined to his palace!" [Note 1]

He was well aware that after losing Blücher's more than 6 soldiers, Prussia was in danger of falling into the ranks of second-rate European countries at any time.

He must achieve brilliant victories on the battlefield, just like Frederick the Great did, in order to lead Prussia to turn the tide.

Moreover, he had always looked down on his father, who had never been to the battlefield. This time, he wanted to prove to all of Europe that the Prussian king, who was good at fighting, had returned!

Because Prussia was on high alert, just two days later, Wilhelm III, along with veteran Field Marshal Mehrendoff, led his troops out of Berlin.

Meanwhile, the Magdeburg Army and the Frankfurt Army also left their posts and headed south. [Note 2]

……

The Duke of Brunswick gently pulled on the reins, glancing back at the now blurred Deutz Fortress, a sense of unease creeping over him. [Note 3]

Although he had repeatedly confirmed before leaving that the main force of the French Third Army on the west bank had left, Prince Hohenlohe's 15,000 troops should be sufficient to complete the defensive mission.

Nassau even provided 1300 soldiers to reinforce the defenses. But he still felt something was amiss.

Perhaps he really was getting old, losing the sharp edge of his former spirit. He shook his head, sighed, and pondered that once the war was over, he would retire back to Göttingen and enjoy his later years.

He patted his horse's waist with his whip, and rode to the middle of the marching column, shouting to the soldiers, "Our mission this time is to get to Kassel as quickly as possible, and then we can wait there for news of the Allied forces' attack on Strasbourg. So get your legs moving!"

At the same time, Lefebvre, who was leading his troops through Mepen, was also loudly encouraging the new recruits who had recently arrived from Brussels:
"How far could you walk in a day before? 15 kilometers? Oh, someone said 20 kilometers, I heard that, that's pretty good."

"But do you know what the old Imperial Guard's normal marching speed is?"

He pointed to a sergeant not far away: "Gaspard, you tell them."

"Yes, General. It's 30 kilometers."

"What about a forced march?"

"38 kilometers to 40 kilometers, General."

“Very good!” Lefebvre waved to the recruits again. “I know you all want to become true Royal Guard soldiers, don’t you?”

An excited shout immediately rang out from all around: "Yes!"

“Then let’s start with walking,” Lefebvre said. “Today we’re going to walk 30 kilometers, and I’ll get a list of everyone who hasn’t fallen behind.”

The new recruits cheered again: "Good!"

"30 kilometers? That's nothing!"

"I want to join the Royal Guard!"

Only the soldiers of the Walloon local army under Gayal looked at the group of young men with caring eyes.

These former Walloon police officers fought alongside the Guards and know all too well what 30 kilometers a day means. Well, that means after about three days, your legs will be so sore they feel like they're about to break.

However, when the column passed Münster—exactly 90 kilometers from Mepen—the recruits no longer shouted slogans like "Fight for the Fatherland!" or even sang, but no one complained of leg pain, and the marching pace never slowed down. The next day at noon, men dressed as German farmers were brought before Lefebvre by French cavalry.

The man took a secret letter from his trouser leg and handed it to him, then stood at attention and said, “General, General Soult has entered Hessian. He asked me to tell you that enemy troops have been spotted near Winterberg.”

Winterberg is located west of Hesse, less than 70 kilometers from Kassel.

Lefebvre checked the codebook, finished reading the letter, and loudly ordered the messenger beside him, "Order the entire army to turn south immediately. Wait, the recruit camp should remain where it is..."

……

Central Switzerland.

Blücher has largely determined that reinforcements will not arrive in the near future.

He was naturally unaware that Pickton's army had been completely annihilated four days earlier.

He was already somewhat numb as he looked at the amount of food his staff had delivered that morning. There were only 11 days' worth of food left, and even at the lowest standard, it wouldn't last more than half a month.

He frowned and sighed; perhaps the only option was to risk a direct assault.

The cavalry, as usual, scattered out to collect food. In fact, the sparsely populated Glarus had already been searched dozens of times by the Prussian army, and at most they could bring back some vegetables and potatoes, which were the rations hidden by farmers in nearby Switzerland.

However, this time, all the cavalrymen returned to camp empty-handed by evening.

Blücher knew that Glarus had run out of food.

He gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice to the staff officer beside him, "Summon all senior officers. We will launch a breakout tomorrow."

The following morning, nearly 30,000 Prussian vanguard troops launched a fierce attack on the French forces from the west and south.

To Blücher's surprise, the attack went exceptionally smoothly; the French only fired a few symbolic shots before abandoning their positions.

Before noon, the Taunchian Legion had advanced to within 10 kilometers west of Glarus and established a defensive line.

After Blücher rode out of the mountains of Glarus, he finally breathed a long sigh of relief and said to his staff, "It seems that the reinforcements have tied down the main force of the French."

The latter hurriedly asked, "General, what should we do next?"

"Let's try to make contact with reinforcements first." Blücher's voice lifted from his previous gloom. "If we rush to Zurich, we might be able to launch a pincer attack on the enemy."

Reinforcements can only come from Basel and St. Gallen, so heading north towards Zurich is definitely the right move. At least we can get some supplies from there.

That afternoon, the main force of the Prussian army completed its assembly and was preparing to advance northwest when they suddenly heard gunfire from ahead.

Although the firing was not particularly intense, Blücher was still greatly alarmed, fearing that the French were trying to lure him away from Glarus and then ambush him there.

He hastily ordered the troops to deploy their defenses in place, with the rear guard remaining in Glarus so that they could retreat in case of the worst-case scenario.

After several hours of this commotion, the French who came to attack did not engage the Prussian army in battle and quietly withdrew.

But by then it was completely dark. Blücher cursed irritably for a while and ordered the soldiers to rest where they were and continue their journey to Zurich the next day.

The next day, the Prussian army had just formed a marching column and had not yet set off when gunfire erupted again ahead.

[Note 1] William III was actually the grandson of Frederick the Great's brother.

[Note 2] Here, Frankfurt refers to the Prussian city located on the Oder River. Another Frankfurt is on the Main River and is the capital of Mainz.

[Note 3] Cologne is a city straddling both banks of the Rhine River. The left bank is the main urban area, currently part of France. The right bank is known as Deutz, much smaller than the left bank, but it contains a cluster of fortresses.

(End of this chapter)